‘Sports Illustrated Swimsuit: 50 Years of Beautiful’ Comes Out Today, And You’re Going To Want To See What’s Inside

Today Sports Illustrated is dropping the mother of all pageview click traps — if your coffee table had a unique views counter, you could sell ad space on it. Okay, enough industry jargon: Here’s a book with photos of single model (all 223) that has ever graced the pages of SI’s “Swimsuit Issue.”

In celebration of its 50th anniversary, “Swimsuit: 50 Years of Beautiful” details how the swimsuit edition went from eight-page afterthought to one of the biggest annual media reveals around. You’re likely quite familiar with the magazine, as well as the various stars it has created, from Kate Upton to Tyra Banks and Elle MacPherson. But the book promises features like “Things We Made Them Do” (sounds creepy, but we’ll bite), “Off The Clock” outtakes and, of course, the “Bodypainting” photos.

There are even some pro athletes with their shirts off — like Joe Montana and Michael Phelps — in there as well, so it’s fun for the whole family.

We all know how important Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit extravaganza has been to the fabric of popular culture — and to sex-crazed young men/sex-crazed old men/sex-crazed females/basically every type of human — over the last five decades. So here’s a taste of the 304-page hardcover below, courtesy of Goodman Media International, Inc.:

Did you know?: Every edition of the swimsuit issue has had a female editor-in-chief. Keep that in mind as you scroll through these photos, and check out the sample layout that we couldn’t publish here.